Since I know barely anyone now, plus I'm a full time university student with work, girlfriend, and all that shabazz, my POV is basically that of a NOOB. So it could be a useful one for attracting new players.
Basically, nothing seemed to be happening. At all. There were a couple of folks using the workshops in Trollsbane, I found a nice n00b halfling cook, the typical couple of dudes pging in the yard, and of course the odd german speaker in Varshikar. But there was no roleplay.
When I say no roleplay, I don't mean roleplay, I mean stories. What I always loved about Illa were the on-going plots between players, whether guild wars, a romance gone wrong, some great building project, a quest (a proper quest I might add), blah blah blah. You know what I mean. And I logged on for several days, but found none of this, here or on the forums.
So there's your problem. The only way for me to really interact with anything would've been to pg up my character, and yet even if I had the time, looking at it as a new player, what would be the point? A character needs a purpose, and Illarion used to be excellent at giving characters purposes, but I couldn't find any.
Obviously, I care about this place otherwise I wouldn't have posted this. However, if I had been a genuine n00b, I would've logged out pretty quick.
So, I've had a think, and I've come up with three seperate issues and possible ways to resolve them.
1) Illarion is currently too big. By too big, I mean its been set up to support a much large player community. There are numerous defunct guilds, about a dozen minor villages/settlements, and everything (at least with the current player population) seems far too spread out. The result? Walking through all these places makes it feel like visiting an old castle ruins. A ghost town. And believe me, that is VERY uninviting to a new player. It tells them right of the bat that people aren't playing this game.
The solution? Shrink Illarion. It may sound radical, but it would make the game far more enjoyable if the community was brought together instead of being spread out across the map. I'd suggest this be done before anything else.
2) Introduce a proper, ongoing storyline. Don't let the game just meander. Real life doesn't meander. If the players aren't doing it, then its up to the GMs. I'd be glad to help out in this respect, if you need any help at all. I am a creative writing student, and this stuff is fun to me.
3) As a last resort (though obviously I know this would never happen for many reasons), the character wipe. Eliminate them all, and start the game over. While there are obvious cons, and it would (seem) to suck for many, it would allow everyone, old and new, to start the game afresh, and breathe fresh life into it.
Cheers if any of you bother to read this, and if any of it angers you remember that I'm only thinking of the game, and adding a perspective.
You remember!
